The era of cognitive technology. Cognitive technologies in education

Today, few of us think about the influence of computers or the media on the mind of a person. Surely somewhere, sometime many of us have heard of such a concept as "cognitive educational technologies". Someone can even say what it is. But the absolute majority does not know at all what the essence of this concept is.

What is cognitive technology: general concepts

In general, do not be frightened by this term. He is purely scientific and, if I may say so, fictional. In fact, the same cognitive-communicative technology, as well as all the other directions in this field, can be viewed from the point of view of the Latin term "cognitio", meaning the functioning of human cognition, more precisely, the ability to understand the ongoing process. But the human brain here plays a secondary role, since the dominant is the subconscious.

In other words, even information-cognitive technologies in essence are aimed at giving a person some knowledge of a certain level, perhaps even on a subconscious level, and push him to perform certain actions. It is not surprising that everyone is trying to influence the consciousness of the modern individual. Remember at least the forbidden effect of the 25th frame.

However, there are also advantages in this, especially if we take into account the educational processes associated with mastering the complex material taught by one or another teacher.

History of occurrence

Let's start with history. This formulation was first proposed by E. Ch. Tolman in 1948 and continued in the pedagogical studies of JS Bruner, R. Ch. Atkinson, G. E. Gardner, M. S. Schechter and many other scientists.

It was these luminaries of educational science that became the head of what is now commonly called the "era of cognitive technologies." In fact, they proposed some kind of general educational model for subjects of all levels of thinking that could be perceived by them regardless of the level of development of consciousness. The thought, of course, is interesting, but from the psychological point of view it can cause legitimate doubts. Nevertheless…

The main types of exposure to the subject

Today, when computers and Internet media have entered our life very tightly, we can speak of at least three main types of development of such commutative systems:

• Cognotropic drugs;
• So-called cognitive-type assistants;
• Virtual interfaces that perform human-computer communication.

In the first case, we are talking about nothing else, like stimulants that allow us to increase the working capacity of the organism, improve our health, give physical strength, etc. The brightest representative of this trend can be called the same vitamin B12 (which, by the way, is doping and Is forbidden to use by athletes). This, to some extent, can be attributed to what is called bio-, nano-cognitive technologies.

The second option is adaptive support systems. The easiest way to explain this is with the example of an autopilot in a modern airliner or in the same computer simulator. The pilot is not immune from emotional feelings. When autopilot is on, all functions are performed by the computer.

The same goes for the latest car systems that can recognize if a person is drunk driving. How to behave, choose the machine itself. In most cases, the on-board computer simply blocks the control system.

The third case is broader. Cognitive technologies of this type presuppose the initial training, if you want, the mastering of the computer on a primitive (subconscious) level. It's no surprise that grandmothers also do an elementary job at such terminals, even if before that they had no idea what it was all about.

How is this all perceived?

Themselves cognitive technologies are aimed at understanding how a person perceives the information received (most often just suggestion).

For example, recent presentations of the newest MSI GT72S G Tobii laptops, allowing to control the characters of computer games, showed that they have special sensors that monitor the pupils of the user's eyes. It turns out that a player at the time of an action can simply look away, and his character in the game will move there.

But this is only a direct process. And who thought about the opposite? In fact, computer terminals are also able to influence the human subconscious. Not everyone knows this, but the same stationary units (especially when the fan is turned on) direct low-frequency infrared radiation towards the user's side. Naturally, we do not perceive this with our senses, but a sense of alertness, fear or something else remains. With laptops is easier. In them, the noise level is minimized.

Cognitive technologies in education

But these are all common examples. Now a few words about how cognitive technologies are used in education.

With their appearance, the pupil became not the subject of instruction, to which the teacher hammered this or that subject into the head, but the participant of the whole process. The "student-teacher" relationship comes to a new level.

However, in this situation, the so-called cognitive schemes are used. This can be an experience laid before, presented or distorted information. In general, a certain template, on the basis of which the active subject is trained, without fail becoming a participant in the process.

Structure and Methodology

As follows from the recent European priorities in the field of education, preference should be given to the creation of an endogenous society conducive to the development of cognitive technologies. But that's just not all clearly imagine what it is. Well, you will agree, the concept of "endogenous society", what is it?

And this, roughly speaking, is our dependence on computers, which implies on their basis the commission of new discoveries and perceptions of reality. Remember SkyNet from the movie "Terminator" or "The Matrix"?

The structure of the impact on the brain of the learner is quite complex, but at the same time simple.

The brain collects external information, whether you like it or not. Your eyes see, your ears are heard, your fingers and skin feel. The main task facing, let us say, cognitive educational technologies, is to direct this perception in the right direction.

In other words, even a difficult-to-learn individual, given his personal propensities or habits, can be made to learn the material taught not as a "cramming", but so that he fixes himself somewhere deep in the subconscious. Agree, the Soviet system with the obligatory study of the same multiplication table turned out to be very effective. We do not climb the calculator to multiply, for example, 3 by 9. Hence the simplest conclusion: you can multiply everything if you know the rules. And the technique is completely unnecessary.

Principles of training

As much as anyone wants, the era of cognitive technology has come. Training is reduced to the methodology of perception of useful information by not even one individual, but by a whole society built on the basis of the behavioral model of one or several people, taking into account their level of education and the degree of perception of incoming information.

For interest, let's take two examples. Let's look at two separate pupils, one of whom is offered the role of a murderer, and the second - victims (conditionally, of course). Try to understand the motives of the murderer, even if he himself explains them.

Then the students change places. This is where the difficulties begin. The person on the basis of just experienced events is affected precisely by their influence. And cognitive technology can convince him of the wrongness of revengeful actions to the opponent. This is a perceptive-cognitive technology that assumes such development and outcome of events. It is believed that, having been in the skin of a wolf or a victim, a person will begin to perceive the reality in a different way. Maybe this is correct, but it does not work.

Another example is the human-computer interaction. Who do you think dictates the terms? Unfortunately, most users note that the conditions are set by the computer system. Look even at Windows 7 and above! Why does the system require running the program on behalf of the Administrator? You yourself are the Admin. Why is there a Super Administrator who forbids you to perform this or that process? And this is not an isolated example.

On the other hand, from the point of view of the user's learning, he himself can dictate the conditions to the computer, disabling unnecessary functions. How this will be done is another matter. But the essence of this does not change: it can be done elementary.

Instead of an afterword

And God forbid that such technologies were used not for the benefit of man. If you look at some films in the genre of fantasy, when people are implanted with chips that are responsible for their behavior (and controlled), somehow it becomes uncomfortable. It is better to use learning algorithms for those who can not learn the pedagogical material taught the first time.

In this case, cognitive technologies will be reduced only to the improvement of the individual's mental development, which, in fact, is assumed initially. In addition, development does not come to the fore here, but the ability to perceive information of a certain complexity, then analyze it and draw the appropriate conclusion in favor of adopting a decision.

Moreover, it is assumed that a person can easily outline texts or oral presentations of any level of complexity, be able to make abstracts, identify the main ideas of the work, make up their own judgments based on the material being taught, and so on.